What we eat is central to our health. The right foods support our bodies, giving the cells what they need to function properly. At Crucial Food we believe in using our nutritional expertise to facilitate a way of eating that promotes health, boosts well-being and minimizes the risks of diseases. We’re fanatical about raw food and cold pressed juices because they preserve the important minerals and vitamins our bodies need – and taste fantastic.

Why Juice?

Limiting your diet to fresh, cold-pressed juices for a day or two can be a great kick-start to a longer-term healthy way of eating. But how does it work?

Consuming cold-pressed, nutrient dense juices allows you to benefit from the nutrients contained in a far larger quantity of fresh fruit and vegetables than you’d be able to manage by eating them.

What’s more, by removing the fibre it reduces the pressure on your body to digest solid food. Juicing gives the stomach, the gut and the liver a chance to rest and repair as well as encouraging the release of any toxins that may have built up.

In just a few days you can notice a real difference in mood, energy levels and digestion. The natural resetting of your appetite and stabilizing of blood sugar levels means most people even lose a few pounds as well.

Why Cleanse?

Indulgent lifestyles, processed foods and the realities of modern living mean that our bodies are assaulted with toxins from the foods we eat and drink and the environment in which we live. Although naturally designed to remove these toxins, our bodies can sometimes have a hard time keeping up.

A cleanse can give your body a chance to recover and repair, leaving you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.

A few days’ juice cleanse is one way to kick-start and encourage this process. But if juicing feels all a bit too rigorous, or you’d like to follow a longer program, it is also possible to detox more gently though a diet of easily digestible, unprocessed and nutrient dense foods.

Carefully chosen raw meals, juices and smoothies can work together to encourage the body to eliminate toxins as well as providing the nutrients needed to allow organs like the liver, colon and kidneys to do their cleansing work.

And the benefits of a 5-7 day cleanse can be impressive – a noticeable energy boost and sense of well-being, more restful sleep, healthier skin and hair and a boosted immune system just for starters.

Why RAW?

The cells in our bodies rely on the vitamins, minerals and enzymes in the foods we consume in order to keep us healthy and feeling good. From digestion to healing, every metabolic process in the body is dependent on the nutrients we consume.

When we cook food to over 118 degrees F a large percentage of these important nutrients can be destroyed or made more difficult for the body to digest and absorb. For example research shows that cooking food destroys between 30% and 97% of the vitamins contained within it and destroys enzymes entirely.

Furthermore, cooking can change the molecular structure of food, converting it into chemical compounds that can be actively harmful to the body, such as carcinogens.

At Crucial we feel that a diet with a generous proportion of raw foods can have amazing and tangible health benefits by providing high-quality nutrition while supporting good digestion and a healthy immune system. In fact people who switch to a raw diet often quickly report improved vitality, sense of well-being and mental clarity.

And the benefits aren’t just in the short term. Raw foods are rich in phytonutrients, enzymes and antioxidants – helpful in reducing the risks of heart disease, stroke, some cancers and type 2 diabetes.

Best of all, by allowing us to appreciate ingredients full of radiant colour and fresh and natural flavours, raw food can look and taste fantastic too!

Why Cold Pressed?

Many of us are aware of the potential health benefits of juices in terms of taking in vital nutrients. But it turns out it’s not just what you drink but how it’s made that makes a difference.

Traditional juicing uses centrifugal methods, which expose the ingredients in your juice to both heat and air. These in turn affect the nutritional content of the end product, reducing the amount of vitamins, minerals and enzymes that make it into your glass.

Cold-pressed juicing on the other hand uses pressure and a fine mesh to extract juice from fruits and veggies.

Keeping the ingredients cool and “raw” better preserves the natural colour, vitamin and mineral content of the fruits and vegetables within, so you can enjoy a juice that’s deliciously bright and chock full of healthy nutrients.

At Crucial all our juices are cold-pressed and immediately chilled to maximize the health benefits as well as freshness and taste.